New Orange Amps, Pedals And Bass For NAMM 2016

Happy birthday to a legend!

All the big names in the world of guitar equipment have something special to show at NAMM 2016, and British institution Orange are no exception. As well as rightly reflecting on past successes, they are also continuing to expand outwards from amplifiers and producing some quite remarkble new bass guitars and effects pedals in the process. Let’s take a took at what we can expect from Orange in 2016…

Tiny Terror

Ah, 2006. Casino Royale restored peoples faith in James Bond, Zidane ended his international with a bang and people were obsessing over the debut album by a young band called the Arctic Monkeys. Time flies, doesn’t it?

It’s hard to believe that 2016 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Tiny Terror amp. As the original lunchbox amplifier, the impact of this small piece of kit is hard to overestimate – Guitarist magazine hailed it as the as one of “the most important guitar products of the last 30 years”.

10 years on, Orange have announced the release of a very limited tiny terror, code-named “Shiny Terror” – try not to touch your screen, we know it’s beautiful. Orange UK Custom Shop have only produced 110 of these stunning models which is a “point-to-point hand-wired version of the original, housed in a stunning mirror-effect, polished stainless steel chassis”. Included with the amp (not available separately) is the open-back speaker cabinet. The racing green theme is a nod to the British heritage of Orange, and has never been offered before. Get them while they’re hot.

The Orange O Bass

Not renowned for products outside the world of amps, the introduction of the Orange O Bass is a brave and ultimately triumphant move by Orange. There have been murmurings and glimpses of this model previously. Originally introduced at NAMM 2014 the O Bass made its first appearance to ticket holders only – without the general public being allowed to set eyes on it. As it tends to do, information about the O Bass found its way on to the internet and spread quickly, leading to guitarists and bass players alike calling for the company to put it into production. 2 years later and Orange have answered their prayers.

Being the brainchild of vintage gear aficionado Technical Director Adrian Emsley, the Orange O Bass has been designed with retro tones in mind. It is perfect for players who want to capture a Motown groove, and a softer touch will yield great earthy overtones. However, the bass also responds well to more robust treatment, and can produce some brilliant retro rock and roll tones. As designer Adrian Emsley puts it, “It growls like a policeman’s dog!”

The source of these great tones lies in the custom-wound split–coil humbucker – simple yet effective.

It has a maple neck and rosewood fretboard, with medium-jumbo frets. The choice of Okoumé wood for the body makes this bass lightweight yet resonant. Plus, it just looks so cool!

The Orange O Bass is currently available in Sunburst, Off-Black and, shockingly, Orange.

Two Stroke Boost EQ

The Orange Two Stroke Boost is the brand’s take on the ‘clean boost’ but with more added Orange flair. This pedal packs and active dual-parametric EQ and up to 12dB of output boost helping you push the sound of your amp that little bit further and helping you stand out with those solo’s. Tweak the pedal to complement your amp’s existing sound and add that push you need or mess around with the EQ to create entirely new sounds. Boost – lead or crunch – you want it, you got it.

One of the best things about the EQ option is that the Two Stroke allows you to push the high mids to stand out when playing and can offer that low end reduction you need to remove the woolliness sometimes associated with regular boost pedals.

Regardless of how you set the pedal though, the Two Stroke pedal’s charge pump circuit (which doubles the internal voltage and massively increases the headroom), works awesomely set before or after your other pedals – a great addition and forward thinking design feature from Orange indeed.

OB1-300 Combo

Go from clean, smart bass tones to completely gnarly crunch at the turn of a knob with the Orange OB1-300 Combo.

The inspiration for the OB1-300 combo came from the age-old trick bass players have been doing when it comes to combining bass and guitar amps to great effect -see Royal Blood, Kyuss and Middle Class Rut for example. So Orange posed the question – why drag two amps on stage when you can have those harmonics, overdrive and gain partnered with a core bass tone? The answer is the OB1-300 combo.

The unique sound comes from the new 15″ Eminence neodymium speaker and front-ported cabinet for added punch and attack. The footswitchable blend circuit allows for a superior control over gain and increased harmonic content to the upper registers of the input signal whilst the lower frequencies are left pure to retain that bass sound you need. Tweak the Blend control to go from warm glowing bass to dirty, filthy grind.

Amp Detonator

Running two amps in unison and switching between the two is a hell of a lot of fun. Relying on a poor quality ABY box/line selector is not. In response to the need of a high quality ABY box, Orange have gone and created their own allowing you to run two amps in unison or switch between the two seamlessly and reliably.

If you’ve suffered with an unresponsive ABY box that destroys your tone or causes hum issues due to non-isolated outputs you’ll be pleased to know that The Amp Detonator from Orange is good to go and gig ready.

The Amp Detonator is a small, active and buffered ABY pedal that can be powered by a 9v battery – in fact its the ONLY active ABY switcher that can be powered by a 9V battery.

It’s been designed to be as transparent as possible without changing any of your tone regardless of the length of your cable. Both outputs have been buffered with a low noise linear circuit to maintain clarity which corrects the tone altering characteristics of some other ABY boxes. It’s your two amps, how they should sound.

A key feature comes in the form of the push-button polarity switch to correct common phase issues between amplifiers – a great addition that can fix phase problems instantly allowing you to achieve the tone you want.

About Lee Glynn

Lee Glynn is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who lives in Liverpool, England. After moving to the UK from Perth, Australia, Lee enjoyed a successful career as guitarist in Liverpool based rock band Sound of Guns.
After releasing two albums, a myriad of EP’s/singles and touring extensively around the world for 6 years including stops at Glastonbury, Latitude Festival, as well as the coveted Reading & Leeds Festivals, Lee decided it was a time for a change of scenery.

Utilising his experience in music journalism, Lee now works within the web team at Dawsons Music, where he can still relay his passion for music by producing great content for the Dawsons blog and social media. Lee is still an avid guitar player and writer.

Here are some fun facts:

Before moving to the UK, Lee used to host a radio show in Australia at the age of 18. Lee presented the unsigned bands segment at Twin Cities FM in Perth, WA.